Matthew S. Hiley's Blog

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It looks as though this most recent tragedy to befall our nation, the anti-gay radical Islamic terror attack in Orlando, could be heading in the direction of our other recent mass-shootings. People are assuming their ‘internet personalities’ that they often allow to take over, and shouting over each other on social media to let people know what absolutely is and is not the answer. Very few are taking the time to digest what has occurred and make an educated decision. Far too many are falling in lock-step with whichever ideology or news source rules their brains, and spewing whatever has been fed to them over a long period of time.

This time has a chance to be different, though. It’s odd. Some people that I know to generally be against the gay community have come out in support of them. They’re pissed off. It’s almost as if they feel that those in the gay community are actually ‘Americans’. Sure, some of it seems to be completely disingenuous, but some of it seems very damned sincere. This is a good thing. It was born of an absolutely disgusting act, but it’s a positive thing. We need to hold on to that. We need to remember that.

You see… The whole ‘gay acceptance’ thing is new to a lot of people. And progress has been slow. But there has been progress. The road to true social progress is often littered with tragedy, but the important thing is that we continue to make progress. There was a time when I was disgusted by the gay community. I’m not proud of that, but it’s a reality. I was ignorant. I didn’t know. I said stupid shit. It happened. Over time, I realized that I was just really f**king wrong on the issue. And you know what? When it comes to the whole issue of the transgendered community, I am better able to deal with it now for having been so ass-backwards before. I can honestly say that I don’t understand, at all, what it’s like to be transgendered. I just don’t get it. But that’s okay. They’re my fellow Americans, and my fellow human beings, and they are deserving of the same rights as the rest of us. They deserve that dignity and respect. If there is to be any light that comes from this dark and horrible act, it is that people have seen, through the blood and tears and chaos, that this group that is often slammed and degraded for ‘shoving their agenda on everyone’ might actually have a point. Yes, they are discriminated against. Yes, they are bullied and killed for simply being born a certain way. Our fellow Americans who are hurting so badly right now are deserving of so much more than what they have had to deal with, and the light to come from this is that the people who might not normally wish to grant them equal rights are waking up to the idea.

Sure, there are still plenty of assholes spewing their hatred, but not as many. Let’s be thankful for that.

This horrific act of terror and violence has welded gay rights and gun rights into one big, ugly ball. And we have to look at it. We have to reflect on it. We have to make some choices. And you know what would be great when we’re making those choices? What would be great is if we could just put our stupid f**king ‘internet personalities’ and our stupid f**king bullshit news sources and our stupid f**cking presidential frontrunners to the side for a few moments while we make these choices.

I think that everyone would be better off if we could just agree, as all sane people do, that we need to decrease gun violence in the United States. Over 90% of the country agrees, according to pretty much every source out there, that we need to make it more difficult for bad people or people with bad intentions to legally obtain firearms. Seriously. Most of us agree on that, just like most of us agree with finding a way to decrease gun violence. Why do we agree on this? Because it’s common f**king sense, that’s why. The problem comes when we say this aloud, or on social media. We are immediately considered to be wanting to take people’s guns away. We are told of Obama’s army driving down our streets to take our guns by force, and of our dreams of a country with less gun violence being complicit in the downfall of America due to our stripping people of their constitutional rights. And that’s just not the case. But both sides allow a bullshit agenda to be propagated.

When it comes to the AR-15, the most vilified firearm in recent history, the folks on the left need to understand some things… Namely, that the AR design is just a design. It’s lightweight and easy to use for hunting or recreation. It is no more ‘automatic’ than most other rifles, shotguns, and pistols available today. The issue you have is with the size of the magazine, which can carry, on average, anywhere from 10 to 80 rounds. Many models of pistols and rifles also offer high-capacity magazines. It’s not the gun you’re against, it’s the high-capacity magazine. And do you know what? We should be able to have a conversation about magazine capacity without everyone flipping their f**king lids. I have three AR’s, and I’m willing to have that discussion.

In my humble opinion, though, we’d be far better off in having a discussion about how easy it is to acquire guns. This absolutely comes into play when discussing the AR platform. Why? Because I don’t want just any f**king asshole to be able to walk into a store and buy a kick-ass AR with an 80 round magazine. That makes no sense. I have to wait a day and have a background check to adopt a dog, for Christ’s sake. We need to wake the f**k up on this. How much better can I prove my point on this than to say that this terrorist asshole, who had been watched and investigated by the FBI for interest in Islamic terror organizations, was able to walk right into a store and buy firearms.

Shouldn’t we all be against this? The answer is ‘yes’. And most of us are. So why can’t we fix it? Because it’s their 2nd Amendment right, as Americans, to be able to have guns. But what f**king sense does that make? I know, I know… Your crazy news source is telling you that ‘anyone could accidentally, or through malice, end up on one of those lists’. They’re saying, “That’s how it all starts!” Here’s a news flash: No one is ever going to be driving down the streets of America taking your guns. It won’t happen. It’s impossible. Stop being a f**king stupid conspiracy theorist. Live in reality. Maintain the right to bear arms, but make laws to keep them out of the hands of people that intend to do harm. I know, those can be murky waters, so I have an idea… Can we start with people who have been under FBI surveillance for making terrorist remarks and sympathizing with f**king terror groups, like the jackass that just mowed down 100 of our fellow Americans? Can we start there? Or do you think that these people deserve the ‘right to bear arms’? Just like in the gay rights issue, it’s time to make a little bit of progress.

These radical Islamic terrorists are a reality. They’re here. They’re home-grown. Let’s deal with this in solidarity. If they come after Americans… whether they be gay, Christian, Muslim, whatever… Let’s deal with them. We certainly don’t need to arm them, though. We’ve tried that time and time again overseas and it hasn’t worked yet, so let’s not do it here. Let’s just stand with and defend our fellow Americans. Period. We’ve been trying this ‘divided’ thing for far too long, as is evidenced by our presidential candidates. We can either continue to yell at each other on whom is better between the liar and the racist, or we can stand together and try to actually fix shit.

And I know, I know… You want to yell about immigration. You want to yell about transgendered people in bathrooms. But no, no, that’s not this conversation. This conversation is about common ground, and fixing shit based solely upon that common ground. This is about building on this tiny bit of light we see, where we can unite as Americans. This is about lifting each other up and moving forward. This is about fighting for the right of our fellow Americans to not die from legally purchased firearms in the hands of terrorists. That’s all. Stay focused. We can do this.

So that’s it. Stop yelling. Stop hating. We’re making progress. Keep it up. Go hug somebody. And fix shit.

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I’ve been having a really effing difficult time with this election cycle, as have many people. I’m a political junkie. I sometimes pay too much attention to it. I have to reign myself in to not talk about it. I don’t want to be that guy. I even get hooked into a Facebook debate now and then. A f**king Facebook debate. There’s nothing worse. There is no bigger waste of time on this planet than going up against other people’s ‘internet personality’. This election is different, though. I mean… there have always been douchebags and liars running for office, but no one has really ever embraced it like this before. When people were liars and douchebags in previous elections, they at least made an attempt to hide it. And usually there was someone left standing that at least seemed to have some moral fiber and conviction on issues. Perhaps I’m referring to the ‘good old days’ that some on the right yearn for, but I don’t think so. I’m thinking of just a few years back, before Donald Trump entered the political arena.

John Kasich (I miss that guy… you remember him, the sensible choice) was just being interviewed about (Surprise!) Donald Trump, and as with every Republican, he was asked if he would be endorsing The Donald. His answer was the best answer I’ve heard. He said that his kids have been paying a lot of attention to this election. They’ve seen what we’ve all seen.

He said, “If I were to turn around today and endorse him, they’d be like, ‘Why, Dad?’ And that matters to me.”

My kids have paid a ton of attention to this election as well. So have their friends. I hear their comments. They’re often funny, but sometimes a bit frightening. One of my daughter’s 8-year-old Mexican-American friends made the comment, “If Trump gets elected, we’re scared. We may have to move to another country.” She wasn’t saying that because they wanted to move to another country, but because Trump is making discriminatory remarks and actions acceptable, and they’re concerned about those things continuing to elevate. They’re scared for their safety, and with good reason now. And if we were to elect a President Trump, those discriminatory remarks and actions would become validated through the election process.

There are a lot of people out there that I genuinely cherish and respect that have made it known that they support Trump. And I get it. He’s a big middle finger to the whole rigged system. Amen. I completely agree with that. He appears to have, for the most part, good business sense. I get that too. Very little is more hotly debated between the two parties than the budget. Also, he’s not owned by anyone. One of my biggest personal disdains of politicians is how so many of them are completely owned by special interest groups. I think this is the biggest middle finger of all, and I love that.

There’s a second group out there that is less rabid than the first, but ultimately has the most control on the right… that’s the group that, before a few weeks ago, KNEW that he was the absolute wrong guy, yet has now decided to rally behind him. The most common excuse for this particular group is the Supreme Court. “This President will likely be nominating a few justices, and we know what kind of people Hillary will nominate.”

Okay, I get it. I’m guessing that if that’s your reasoning, you and I are probably not completely aligned on social issues. But I get it. If the tables were turned between parties, the other guys would be thinking the same thing. Bernie has actually already caused that discussion to begin.

So, let me tell you where Donald Trump lost me. I hadn’t taken him seriously since he went front and center to fan the flame of the ‘birther’ movement. This was a blatantly racist move. We don’t need more racial unrest in this country. Regardless of which other people you might blame for fanning that flame for the last 8 years, you cannot say that he hasn’t played a massive role. His entire campaign has gained a large portion of its media coverage through inflammatory racial remarks. He used that media coverage to tap into a darker side of our American history, and unfortunately, it resonated far more than many of us hoped it would. It began with the birther movement, moved toward Mexicans being rapists, took a turn toward banning Muslims, and even sideswiped Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio with some birther nostalgia. I guess you could say he lost me long ago, back when the ugliness of the birther movement was on full display. But I wasn’t really completely floored by him then.

The thing that completely floored me, and where he really really lost me, was with his remark about prisoners of war not being real heroes. Because they were captured, they were essentially losers, not heroes. That was the deal-killer for me.  I remember first seeing that, and being thoroughly dumbfounded that someone would ever say that. I was disgusted. My grandfathers, father, uncles, cousins, friends… they had all served in the military. My kids saw this on the news countless times in the days following. That matters to me. Just like Kasich said. It matters. The military gets respect. End of story. This was absolute bullshit. Surely, I surmised, this would be the downfall of Trump. I knew then that there was no way that our country would rally behind this man. It would be a slap in the face to our armed forces.

I was wrong, though. And it baffled me. It still baffles me. He never slowed down after that. He knows that he’ll get media coverage when he makes inflammatory remarks, and so he continues to make them. His support continues to grow.

For the reasons I listed earlier, the middle finger to the system, the business sense, not being owned, the Supreme Court… he continues to grow in power. And for reasons I cannot comprehend, with all of us and all of our children watching… the blatantly racist and discriminatory remarks, the mean and ugly level at which Trump plays his insult game, the obvious switching sides on pretty much every single issue (often in the same day)… it just doesn’t matter. That’s a really damn sad statement about the nation we might be becoming, or perhaps already are. None of those things that would completely destroy any other public figure matter at all. But they should matter. This is not a f**king reality show where you have to keep the ratings up. This is the country my children will be growing up in. It matters. And it’s all being mocked and destroyed for a guy who knows how to get ratings. These things matter.

And I know what half of you are thinking right now, because that’s how our two-party system has trained you: “There’s no f**king way I’m voting for Hillary.” I’m not saying to vote for Hillary. I’m not voting for Hillary. But I’m sure as shit not voting for Trump. Hillary doesn’t sit well with me either. I’ll probably vote Libertarian. But I refuse to validate, in front of my children, all of the awful, hateful, racially-charged, ugly, insulting things that Donald Trump has said and done to nearly everyone he’s come in contact with. It matters. It’s not okay for my kids to think the way he speaks and carries himself is acceptable. It’s that simple. I’ll vote for someone with character, whose views are most aligned with mine. And my nominee will most likely lose. But that’s my middle finger. Actually, I’ll be using both middle fingers. One will be aimed at the broken election system, and one will be aimed at the candidate that would validate hate. I’m still hopeful that many of these Trump supporters that have character and integrity will realize they have a second middle finger as well.

Aren’t we always told that character and integrity matter? Aren’t we always told not to insult people? Aren’t we told that our true test of who we are is whether or not we do the right thing when it matters? My father said many times growing up that there aren’t different levels to things like character and integrity. You either have them, or you don’t. It is my opinion that we are on the cusp of electing a man who has neither character nor integrity. But we still have a chance to redeem ourselves in the eyes of our children by not validating him. It’s more important than losing an election. The world will not end. It won’t happen. Under each President, the opposing side is quick to let us know that if the other party wins, it will be the end of everything we hold dear. Stop buying into the bullshit. It’s never happened. It won’t happen this time. We’re going to be okay. Vote for whoever the hell you want, but don’t validate someone awful because you’re afraid that if you don’t, someone more awful will win. Vote for someone with values. Vote for someone with character and integrity. Show your kids that having these things matters more than winning. They do. That’s what we’ve always told them. Let’s stand by it. Let’s show them it matters.

Reach down, at the end of your arm, and find that other middle finger.

Be well.

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So, here we are…

It’s 2016, and we are officially in the midst of the World’s Greatest Sh*t Show. Just when you thought we couldn’t get more ass-backwards, just when you thought we couldn’t be more divided… the ‘Outrage Pimps’ of America have fecalized us, and we all have our hands in the air as this big brown rollercoaster circles the drain.

Seriously. What in the ever-loving f*ck happened to us? What happened to the folks representing us who reside in the political middle? I know, I know… You’re tired of hearing about it. You’re tired of reading about it. You’re tired of watching it on TV. I am too. I’ve been completely unable to write about the sh*t show because I’ve been paralyzed by the one-two punch of disgust and awe.

I don’t even know where to start. I don’t know how to start. Everything is deemed inflammatory. The problem with everything being deemed inflammatory is that the bullshit that’s been labeled as such is lumped in with that which should actually inflame us. We have no way to address the issues.

Look at gun control… You can’t talk about it, even though 90+% of our country thinks we need to make it more difficult for those who intend to do harm with firearms to obtain them. If I bring it up, I’m coming for your guns. If I state that, in my opinion, open-carry of semi-automatic weapons is a bad idea, I’m coming for your guns. If I state that I don’t want college students carrying concealed weapons, I’m coming for your guns. I own several guns. I want to keep them. But if someone were to offer me evidence that an additional step could be added that might be a slight, momentary inconvenience… and that step would save lives… I’m in. Sign me up. Do I know the answer? No, because we can’t have the conversation. The gun lobby is full of outrage pimps that shut the whole prospect of a conversation down. And they don’t shut it down in a minor way. They get you pissed off. They get you to shut down the conversation for them on every social media outlet available. And then we just kick back and watch the violence unfold before us on a daily basis. Sure, they agree there’s a mental health element, and that we should do something about that, but then what do they do? They just get you pissed off again. It’s actually a brilliant business model for them, because it creates a market frenzy for firearm purchases.

Then we have healthcare… I’ll tell you up front, I’m not a fan of Obamacare. I don’t think it makes sense for employers to be involved in the process. It’s another layer of bureaucracy. But I lean left on this one. I support a single payer system. What happens when we say something like this aloud, though? Here come the outrage pimps. “It’s Socialism!” they all scream. Well, yes, just like public education, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and countless other things… It’s what countries do when they evolve to something greater. They take care of their people. It’s called compassion. But we don’t have to agree. I may not be right. I’m open to the conversation, and I’m willing to adjust my viewpoint. But I can’t have the conversation. Because at this point in the essay, I’m a socialist who wants to take your guns.

And then we move to foreign policy… Who should we bomb, and when? Should we continue to arm and train rebels that hate us because the people they’re fighting hate us more, only to fight the rebels we armed a few years down the line? Is this interventionist policy something that’s gotten away from us? Has it fixed anything at all? Half of our country still supports the invasion of Iraq, even doubling down and saying they’d do it all over again if they had to, regardless of the fact that most world leaders deem this the worst American foreign policy disaster in history. We have to keep our military budget as bloated as possible, spending billions on obsolete programs instead of infrastructure. But what happens when we try to have this talk? Aren’t we adults? Don’t we care about our service men and women? Why can’t we talk about it? Because talking about it means I’m weak on foreign policy. It means we won’t stand by our allies. It means we’re making America weak. I just want our leaders to explore if there’s a better alternative. I can’t say it, though, because I’m a socialist who wants to take your guns and abandon our allies.

How about police brutality against black people? Can we talk about this one? No. Not just no, but HELL NO. Both sides will take you down on this one. The problem with this one is that you can either support your police officers, or you can think there is police brutality against black people disproportionate to the amount against other races. One of my best friends is a cop. There’s no way in hell you’ll get me to talk poorly of that profession. I put our police on the same pedestal as soldiers. They risk their lives for our safety, and they do so by choice. They sacrifice their lives daily for us. This is not up for debate. Yet if I say that, I hate black people. Is there an issue out there with some of police officers? Yes. Not most of them… not by a long shot… but there is obviously an issue. It’s a deep issue. It runs throughout our justice system. We have to fix it. But don’t ask me to disparage all police officers, or put them all in one boat. That’s an action that’s equally disgusting to me as some police officers targeting minorities. It should be possible to support our brave men and women in police uniforms well as fight for justice for minority groups being targeted. But we can’t. Our leaders will sick their outrage pimps on you. Then you’ll end up like me: a socialist who wants to take your guns and abandon our allies while simultaneously hating both police officers and black people.

Can we talk about gay rights? Can we talk about my cousin, a gay dude who’s a total badass of a guy that served his country in the armed forces? Can we talk about his freedom to marry? No, we can’t. That’s because his ability to have the same rights and freedoms as the rest of us means that your religious freedoms are being trampled on. Because my cousin wants equal rights, the outrage pimps have convinced many that they will no longer be able to sell wedding cakes unless we want them covered in the tears of Jesus, and their kids will almost certainly become infected with ‘the gay’ and end up showering at school with transgendered people. So what does that make me? That’s easy. It makes me a socialist who wants to take your guns and abandon our allies while simultaneously hating both police officers and black people while trampling on your religious liberty and making your kids take gay school locker-room showers with transgendered people.

But if you REALLY want the outrage pimps aligned against you, try showing compassion for immigrants. See how fast it takes someone to say, “We should take care of our own first!” Yes, because nothing says ‘taking care of our own’ like denying healthcare, entrapping generations in predatory lending via student loans, attempting to make both the minimum wage and social programs disappear, ignoring our wounded veterans while continuing to ship them off to unjust and never-ending wars, and so on… We don’t take care of our own. In fact, we get pissed off at people and slap them down when they ask for a hand up. I guess that thinking such a culture would honor the inscription on the Statue of Liberty is preposterous. That’s just not us anymore. It doesn’t matter if your family is fleeing the most treacherous conditions known to man… It doesn’t matter if your government is killing people just like you and your family, and you’ll have to watch your children become emaciated or blown to bits. F*ck you. You’re not one of us. If we let you in, you’ll rape and kill us. You’ll send your kids to our schools. Go home! Right? Right. Yeah, I can’t have that talk either. I’m a socialist who wants to take your guns and abandon our allies while simultaneously hating both police officers and black people, trampling on your religious liberty and making your kids take gay school locker-room showers with transgendered people, and thinking you should be raped by immigrants.

So anyhow, that’s me. That’s what you’re programmed to think. That’s how you’re programmed to react. That’s what I am to be labeled the moment I punch the ‘publish’ button on this essay. I’m a socialist who wants to take your guns and abandon our allies while simultaneously hating both police officers and black people, trampling on your religious liberty and making your kids take gay school locker-room showers with transgendered people, and thinking you should be raped by immigrants. It sounds ridiculous, right? It should. But for too much of our country, it doesn’t sound crazy at all. Just watch the presidential debates. That’s exactly what they’re saying. Our candidates have mastered the art of Outrage Pimpery. And one stands high above them all.

I am absolutely baffled every single day that a sizable portion of the Republican populace has rallied around a man that has achieved Outrage Pimp Master Level V. I’m baffled that, sprinkled amongst the masses of racist, illiterate and unintelligent Trump supporters lie a few groupings of otherwise intelligent folks. Trump has mastered the outrage. He has tapped into it. And his supporters don’t care if he denigrates women, POW’s, the handicapped, and immigrants. They don’t care that he’s slow to speak poorly of the KKK and claims ignorance of David Duke, a very racist man he knew of quite well. They don’t care that he has vowed to kill the innocent families of people who turned to terrorism. They don’t care that he’s a huckster who scammed $40 million from folks who enrolled in Trump University, and left them nothing in return. They just don’t care. He’s tapped into the outrage. And the scariest thing is when we hear his supporters say, “He just says what we’re all thinking.” F*ck no, he doesn’t. He says what racists and those in awe of their opposable thumbs are thinking. He pisses everyone else off. Unfortunately, they like that about him. I can appreciate wanting a self-financed businessman in office… but there’s always the option of picking one that isn’t a bigoted scam-artist f*cking douchebag. Just so you know.

So, here I am… Matthew S. Hiley… a socialist who wants to take your guns and abandon our allies while simultaneously hating both police officers and black people, trampling on your religious liberty and making your kids take gay school locker-room showers with transgendered people, and thinking you should be raped by immigrants. It’s too much to put on a business card, so I’ll call it what it is… I’m a moderate. And I’m tired of being insulted by the wingnuts in both parties because they’re unwilling to have honest discourse (one FAR more than the other). They’re unwilling because they have to sell their outrage. Outrage wins elections. Mr. Trump is proving this at a rate never before seen. He’s building his kingdom on bullsh*t, and half the country is buying the bricks. Almost nothing he says is even remotely attainable, and yet they keep handing him the bricks. One might normally refer to these folks as gullible idiots sporting an alarming lack of cognitive reasoning. With few exceptions, one might be very right.

This is usually the point in an essay where the author offers a solution, or draws things together somehow with a pathway leading toward the light. That’s not what’s happening here though. The only thing I can offer is this: Most people know right from wrong. With some people, religion or spirituality offers guidance in situations such as this. For others, they just need time to process things that are said to form an opinion. So do what you need to do… think, pray, sacrifice a goat, I don’t give a sh*t. Just think about right vs. wrong. Use your f*cking brain. Think about things from a moral perspective, and vote accordingly. I know with certainty that if Jesus were alive and in America, he would first flip off and then b*tch-slap Donald Trump. And then he wouldn’t vote for him. I would hope that everyone else would do the same.

Stop buying into the outrage, people. Just be a good person, and vote accordingly. That’s the best way to make America great again.

The post Trump’s America and the Art of Outrage appeared first on Matthew S. Hiley, Author.

It seems as though this most recent mass shooting is having a bit more staying power than the last couple of hundred. Sure, it’s fading out, but it gives me a little bit of hope that the conversation may grow over the next couple of hundred mass shootings. We may actually do something about it in the next twenty years or so.

But doing something is tricky. You see… I’m a gun owner. I own several guns. Hell, three of them are assault rifles. I do not classify myself as a ‘gun nut’, however, nor do I associate myself as being involved in any big national ‘gun culture’. I like to hunt. I enjoy getting out in nature and taking my kids hunting. Target shooting with the kids is fun as well. And to top it off, I get some peace of mind knowing that I can use a firearm to protect my family in the unlikely instance that there would be a middle-of-the-night home invasion. I have no desire to give up any of that. None at all. But here’s the thing… I haven’t heard anyone saying any of that had to go away with some common sense legislation. It’s all just rhetoric and scare tactics to get people angry. Angry people vote.

We’ve all heard the talking points. The big one this time has been in reference to this school being a ‘gun free zone’. Well, no shit. It’s a school. If you think people should be able to bring guns to school, then click off of this blog. I can’t get through to you. No one can. We’re past that point. You’re so far gone down that road in your f**ked up armed Utopia that nothing will reach you. You’re in the same crowd that thinks all teachers should be weapons experts with a Colt .45 in a shoulder harness while teaching that evolution is a theory on even plane with the Garden of Eden. I can’t reach you with the same sense of reason that most in the world possess.

The reason that a ‘gun free zone’ doesn’t work in the heavily-armed-society wet dream is tied directly to another big right-wing NRA funded talking point: Criminals don’t follow the law… that’s why they’re criminals. Again, no shit. Seriously. No shit. This is the reason I’m 100% in favor of the right of Americans to protect themselves with firearms… Just not f**king everyone, and not f**king everywhere. And just because criminals don’t follow the laws doesn’t mean that we don’t need laws. This kind of rhetoric has clogged the ears of the willing to the point that they are no longer capable of doing the smart thing, being proactive, and has forced them into a dystopian apocalyptic mentality where everything is a fight for their life and the only option is to be reactive.

I have news for the people who will not listen: We are not in the end times. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are not drawing nigh. Also, our country is not collapsing beneath our feet due to a Muslim Marxist dictator in the White House. It’s just not happening. Sure, we have problems, but seriously… Get a grip. You live in a fantasy world. Unfortunately, your fantasy world is tied directly with the ‘gun culture’ that has grown massively in recent years. You need to recognize that it is very unlikely that you’ll need to be ‘running and gunning’ at any point in your life. You can’t continue to build this patriotic-crusader mentality and expect it not to take a toll on everyone. The chances of this scenario becoming a reality are incredibly low, and are in no way deserving of fashioning your entire life around. You’d have a far better chance of being struck by lightning, and I’m assuming you don’t live in fear of lightning. I’m guessing you don’t make several social media posts daily about the stupid liberals that don’t understand the dangers of lightning. We already have soldiers and policemen, and they’re awesome. We just need you to attempt some level of normalcy that doesn’t involve a life of armed anger.

I remember my dad telling me about a fly-fishing trip he took in South America several years back. Everywhere he went, he said, there were men armed to the teeth with automatic weapons. They carried machine guns everywhere in town as well as at the lodge where he stayed. He said that it made everyone on the trip extremely uncomfortable. And yet that’s exactly what many on the right are yelling loudly for… Everyone being armed. Can you imagine how that would feel in America? If your answer is ‘awesome’, you need to have your f**king head checked. You are the problem. You want the fear of the gun to keep order. And that’s the same ‘gun culture’ fantasy that many of the mentally ill mass shooters have bought into. The fear of the gun will fix their problems.

The problem with the ‘gun nut’ arguments, though, are the occasional nuggets of truth… the ‘no shit’ things they throw in, such as the aforementioned ‘criminals break the law’… Because of this, it is true that we will never have the option of being a gun-free society. It would never work. There are far too many guns. That option should be off the table. And this is where the big fracture in the debate occurs. The gun lobbies, politicians, viral memes, talk show hosts, etc., have convinced the masses that increased gun regulation is the first step to taking your guns away. It’s part of the fantasy. It’s actually the biggest part of the fantasy… “from my cold dead hands,” and so on.

This Mad Max universe they live in involves some monumental final stand, where the patriotic man fights off the government in a standoff as the tanks roll down the street to disarm society. They live in a world where this is a real possibility, which is why it’s so difficult to reach them with a reasonable argument. But I would like to repeat to the folks that won’t listen: That’s just not going to happen. Relax. Unclench your buttcheeks. Please. F**k. You’re making us all nervous.

All that we want to do is talk. That’s it. We want to be able to have a conversation that doesn’t involve end times prophesies. We just want to find a way to keep guns out of the hands of people who might use them to kill innocent people. That’s all. Keep on hunting. Protect your home and your property. That’s a-ok. But let’s see if we can prevent a few more gun murders. Is it a mental illness problem? That’s certain to be a big part of it. So let’s find a way to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. That won’t happen if we arm everyone. Sure, it’s great when someone shoots the crazy armed f**ker who just took out eleven people, but isn’t it more great to have the eleven people alive? I look forward to a time when we can have this conversation, full of thought and intellect, and absent of absurdity and rhetoric. But that involves compassion and compromise, so maybe I’m the one in the fantasy world.

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A mass shooting is driving a wedge through our political culture yet again. This is a problem other developed countries don’t seem to face on anywhere near the scale that we do in the United States. The United States… That name seems a bit ironic these days. Why is it that we are incapable of looking at what the other side has to say these days? Why can’t we hold our police officers in the highest regard for the job they do, while at the same time take action to address and correct inequality based on race with our justice system? Why can’t we truly help those in need with government assistance programs, while at the same time recognizing that there is abuse in that system? Why can’t we respect the right of people to own firearms, while at the same time acknowledging a need to find a path to keep them out of the wrong hands? The answer is simple. It’s because of the greatest product we have to sell on the free market right now… Anger.

We all have friends with opposing political views. God knows I do. I live in Texas, and my views fall somewhere between staunch Libertarian and Bernie Sanders lover. I’m a socially liberal guy who likes to hunt. On the surface, I have very little in common with most of my friends concerning social issues. We argue and joke about politics constantly, yet we manage to be friends. But why? Well, they’re damn good people. We simply disagree. And we can talk about it and joke about it, and often times find common ground. Oddly, though, most of my conservative friends acknowledge a need for change in our gun laws. Most of them acknowledged a need for change in healthcare before the Affordable Care Act was implemented. On so many issues today, many of the conservatives that aren’t in politics are very reasonable. I know this situation is not unique to me. We all have good friends with differing views.

So why is it that we can’t have a conversation about serious issues on a national level when tragedy repeats itself again and again? A child is killed in this country by gun violence every three hours. Tens of thousands of Americans die every year by guns. I own several guns. I have no problem having a discussion about finding a way to prevent gun violence, and working to find a way to reduce those numbers drastically. Most of my conservative friends don’t have a problem talking about it. Why can’t we do that on a larger scale? Well, that’s easy. Anger.

You see… Most of the conversations that I have with my conservative friends are just that: conversations. Conversations are rare these days. Many people feel that communicating on Facebook or other social media is the same thing as having a conversation. It’s not. There’s a Grand Canyon sized difference between talking to someone and talking at them. We’re all Superman on the internet. It’s not much different with political parties. They’re Superman when there’s a camera. They talk at each other. There’s always a screen involved, be it a TV screen or a computer monitor. We talk at each other. There’s no need to compromise on the screen. On the screens we have a reputation to uphold, and the driving force on these screens has become anger.

Anger gets people involved. Anger gets people to the voting booth. Anger gives you an enemy. Anger gives you a sense of worth, because you’re fighting for something. At least that’s how it starts. Over time, that anger festers and grows. It consumes. It becomes a lifestyle. It becomes a way of gaining acknowledgement. It becomes who you are. It becomes a way for you to appear valiant on the screens, and it unites people around that one thing we don’t want people united by… Hate. And if you’re caught up in all of this national anger and happen to be mentally ill, it may go further… And that happens far too often in our country.

When a tragedy occurs, the seemingly intelligent approach to addressing the tragedy would include taking steps to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again. We see this in every kind of tragedy except one. Terrorists on airplanes that kill 3,000 people? Change the entire security screening process nationwide. Too many people killed in car crashes? Enforce safety standards and make people wear seat belts. 30,000 people die by firearms in a year? Sorry, we can’t talk about that. Well, we can talk about it, but only if we talk at each other. We have to keep that anger alive. It’s who we are. We need our enemy.

It’s nothing short of an absolute damn shame that our politicians can’t have the same discussion that I have with my friends about how to approach the issue of keeping guns out of the hands of mentally ill people. Over ninety percent of the country agrees that we need to make changes. We’re together on this, for the most part. Liberal and conservative. There is common ground. But politicians need you angry, or else you might not vote. Neither the conservative nor the liberal representatives have the balls to stand up to the gun lobby and show a unified front. We don’t do compromise. Compromising has become a sign of weakness on the screens. We have to be badasses at all times. It’s who we are.

So what’s the answer? Well, it’s obvious. Talk to each other. Talk about ways to prevent it. Have the courage to do that. Grow some f**king balls. Compromise. Stop trying to be an angry, valiant crusader, yearning to be a badass and incapable of compromise. People are dying. Let’s set our image on the screens aside for a while and ask our politicians to have the conversation liberals and conservatives alike are having every day across this country, and let’s not bite on the anger bait next time it pops up in our news feed. Find another way to be a badass. This way isn’t working out for anyone.

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There were a couple of pictures this week that really got to me… really made me question the dark side of humanity and civilization. This was the one that got me the most, though. I have four kids. I can’t fathom the depths of the pain achieved from seeing the lifeless body of your child washed up on a beach. You shouldn’t have to have kids for your heart to break when you see something like this, but it certainly drove things home more for me because of that. A man lost his two beautiful, tiny children along with his wife. He said after he buries them, he simply wants to sit beside their graves until he dies. I can’t imagine feeling differently.

Can you imagine how deeply terrifying life must be when a parent arrives at the decision to leave everything and flee their homeland? Can you imagine how helpless and hopeless a situation that would be, to know that your only option was to take your family and leave immediately, knowing that death for your children was a very real possibility whether you stay or go? Can you imagine, in this day and age, being forced to rely upon the decency, grace, and understanding of others in order for your family to have even a minescule shot at simply surviving?

Aside from heartbreak, do you want to know what I keep thinking of when I see this photo over and over again? I think of Mexico. I think of the Republican candidates vying for a shot at the Presidency. I think of the things that have come out of their mouths that they’ve been proud of… that they’ve been hi-fived for… things that have been regurgitated on Facebook pages across this ever-divided country of ours, garnering praise through comments, likes, and shares…

How did we become this? How did vilification of immigrants fleeing inhumane situations that posed an absolute risk of death and tortured lives become a ‘selling point’ for a political party? How did this become something in which pride was taken? Have you no shame at all? We are surrounded by these immigrants and their families every day in America. They are our friends, our co-workers, our soldiers, our firemen, our teachers… And yet we think nothing of calling them and their relatives thieves and rapists. We think nothing of considering them second-class citizens. We think nothing of denying them an inkling of humanity when they come to us broken, beaten, hungry… We think nothing of surrounding their buses with armed militias, saying ‘f**k you’, and sending them back into the nurturing arms of terror.

Coming from the party that touts itself as embodying Christian principles, I can’t help but wonder… What would Jesus do?

Now, I know what all of my conservative friends out there are thinking right now…

“Dude, we have to take care of our own before we can take care of all of these illegals”…

Right. We’ve done such a good job at that, with our tax-loopholes and ever-eroding middle-class…

“We can’t afford it. We’re trillions of dollars in debt”…

And yet we continue to send billions in aid to countries that despise us. We continue to bail out banks that sit back and laugh at us.

“They’re just coming here to have their anchor babies and live off our welfare system”…

Yes… because working fourteen hour days outside doing jobs Americans won’t do tends to qualify you as ‘lazy as hell’.

“Why can’t they just come here legally?”

Sometimes it’s difficult to get your Visa application in order while cartel gunmen are mowing through your town with uzis.

I keep coming back to the Christianity thing… The opposing ideals here stand out like a sore thumb with Republicans. How can you read the teachings of Jesus, profess that your life is dedicated to following in the footsteps of Jesus, be saved by Jesus, and then point loaded AR’s at terrified fleeing families seeking a better life, or at least a shot at one, and demand they they get the f**k out of your country? And then, to take things to an alarmingly low level, address them as animals from the campaign stage. How did you get to that place? How did that much hatred manage to seep into your heart, where you force fellow humans in need back into the dark nightmares from whence they came? And why does it not sicken you like it does me to thump your chest at this astonishing lack of compassion?

Is it time we take down the Statue of Liberty and replace it with a wall and a ‘Keep Out!’ sign? Nearly every one of us in America is either an immigrant or a child of an immigrant that came here seeking the same opportunities as these people. Why does nearly half our country not see the glaring, sad irony of that?

I’m not saying I have the answers here, but I know what the answer is not. It’s not staring at a picture of the lifeless body of a child washed up on a beach, then sending folks to build a wall at that beach so that we don’t see problems wash up there anymore. The life of that Syrian child is worth no more than the life of a Mexican child, and no less than an American child. It’s wonderful to take pride in your country, as I do… but the fact is, Jesus never mentioned America. And I’m not particularly religious, but Jesus was a good dude. He said to take care of the least among us. Not the white least among us, the Christian least among us, or the legal least among us. Just the least among us. Perhaps someday, Republicans will stop waving that book above their heads or hiding behind it, set it down, and see what it has to say.